BY DAVID JESSOP— In the last seven months there has been a lot of news about the reopening of full diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States. Generally, media interest has outpaced reality, demonstrating little understanding of the difficulty of what will happen next. The situation implies that two geographically proximate nations with completely disparate motivations will have to be cooperative neighbors, which will be no easy task. Additionally, the negotiation of diplomatic ties will serve as an important background to the major changes underway in Cuba’s socially-driven political and economic systems.

As a result of the lack of understanding of the true nature of this situation, in much of the world there is little perception that the final process of fully normalising relations, if it ever happens, will be hugely complex and politically challenging for both sides. Even less understood is the fact that the process to reopen diplomatic relations is vital to Cuba attempting to reorient its economy and society before its current leaders, those who led its revolution in the 1950s, hand the country over to the next generation.

Both countries are only now at the beginning of a new, long, and complex second stage of an uncertain process. If this stage is successful, it will only take the two countries a few steps closer to the possibility of full normalisation. From a Cuban perspective, this would require that the United States accept that Cuba will continue to develop its unique form of socialism without external interference. To this unlikely outcome, both countries are beginning a dialogue that requires setting aside a history of mistrust and focusing on issues that have both practical and political dimensions.

By mutual agreement, Cuba and the United States have established working groups on human rights; air services agreements; cooperation on security issues (including counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism); postal services; negotiations on the delimitation of geographical boundaries (in relation to possible undersea oil exploration involving Mexico, the United States, and Cuba); approaches to coordinated disaster response; cooperation on public health issues; law enforcement; addressing the issue of fugitives from justice; telecommunications and the internet; trade issues; and migration. There is also the looming and fraught issue of the United States’ registered claims for assets seized at the time of the Cuban Revolution, a matter that the White House has said that it wants to make a priority. >>>

Toronto-based miner Sherritt International Corp. is taking a beating as nickel and oil prices plummet, but the chief executive sees a silver lining for his company as U.S. and Cuba relations continue to thaw.

David Pathe, who delivered weak second-quarter results Wednesday, said he visited the firm’s operations in the island nation last week as the U.S. reopened its embassy in Havana after 50 years under renewed diplomatic ties.

“There’s a tremendous amount of optimism in Cuba at the moment, and a lot more interest in Cuba internationally,” Pathe said in an interview.

“We’ve been in Cuba for over 20 years and it’s a remarkably stable place to do business,” he said.

Sherritt produces approximately two-thirds of Cuba’s oil and also owns a 50 per cent interest in the Moa nickel and cobalt joint venture with the Cuban government, which includes mining, processing and refining operations.

However, as the Communist-ruled island’s largest foreign investor by far, Sherritt has struggled with “negative connotations” as the Canadian miner befriended Fidel Castro and continued to extract nickel, cobalt and oil there amid what he called a “crippling” economic embargo with the U.S.

While things are opening up on the diplomatic side, Pathe said progress is still slow on the bigger issues like ending the embargo and repealing the Helms-Burton Act, which for 19 years has barred Sherritt directors and executives including Pathe from doing business or even travelling in the U.S.

“Both would be a big benefit to us,” he told analysts on a conference call.

What will Cuba look like in twenty years? Right now, as the lifting of most remaining travel restrictions and embargoes seems increasingly imminent, people all over the hemisphere are betting on the answer to this question. Hotels and cruise ships are moving in. Other businesses are gingerly following. And Cuban citizens are gearing up for great things.

But some fear that Cuba’s future smells like something other than conviviality. With more business and more tourism comes their less nourishing trappings—lots and lots of garbage.

“There will be people touring the islands in volumes and numbers that Cuba has never seen,” explains Dr. Sarah Hill, an anthropologist who has been traveling to Cuba since 1982. “And they’re going to bring stuff that they don’t want to carry around with them for the entire trip, and so they’re going to leave it behind. And that alone will generate a waste stream that will be new to Cuba.”

Twenty years ago, Cuba was technically filled with trash. But it was trash that didn’t look like trash. Thanks to various trade embargoes and the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba in the 1990s was essentially a closed system, cut off from most of the world’s goods. “There was nothing new to replace anything that you used up or broke,” says Hill, who studies “what people do with stuff they don’t want.”

So people made do with what they had, turning Coke cans into containers and dumps into public gardens. Hill knows people who became “artisanal plastic producers,” beach-combing for washed-up trash, melting it down, and pushing it through molding machines they had fashioned out of scavenged truck pistons. >>>

Cuba received 1,923,326 tourists between Jan. 1 and Jun. 30 in 2015, up 15.9 percent over the same period in 2014, an official report said Thursday.

Cuba's National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) announced on Thursday that 218,635 tourists visited the Caribbean island in June alone. This represents a 20.6-percent increase from the same month last year.

The United Kingdom, France and Italy are still the main sources of foreign visitors in the first quarter, and all of them have witnessed a growth of between 10 percent and 28 percent in the number of tourists to the island country.

Three Latin American countries -- Argentina, Venezuela and Mexico -- trailed behind the above European states. Among them, Venezuela has seen the biggest increase, or 61.5 percent, in the number of visitors in the first half of 2015.

The notable increase in tourists visiting Cuba came after the historic diplomatic rapprochement between Cuba and the United States, which was announced in December 2014.

Even though the ONEI did not mention the number of U.S. holidaymakers, they are likely to increase as U.S. President Barack Obama loosened travel restrictions in January, which, as part of a U.S. blockade policy, are still in force for U.S. citizens who want to visit Cuba.

Tourism is the Caribbean island's second source of foreign exchange earners, which stood at more than 1.8 billion U.S. dollars.

In 2014, Cuba received a record three million tourists, an increase of 5.5 percent over 2013.

Minister for commerce, business development, investment, and consumer affairs, Emma Hippolyte, and Roberto Verrier, director of the Centro de Promoción del Comercio Exterior y la Inversión Extranjera (CEPEC) signed the MOU during the recently held Cuba-Caribbean Business Forum in Santiago de Cuba.

The MOU cements the ongoing relationship between TEPA and CEPEC to expand trade between the two countries.

“The government of Saint Lucia hopes that this relationship will deepen existing bilateral relations and also examine future trade opportunities to be pursued between Saint Lucia and Cuba,” Hippolyte said.

The forum was hosted by the Cuban Chamber of Commerce and the local government authorities of Santiago de Cuba to mark the 500th anniversary of the city.

TEPA is working to introduce Saint Lucian products into Cuba, which involves working closely with Dr Charles Isaac, Saint Lucia’s ambassador to Cuba and Jorge Soberon, Cuba’s Ambassador to Saint Lucia.

Ori Zoller made headlines over a decade ago selling thousands of AK-47s that eventually found their way into the hands of terrorists in Colombia.

Now, according to recently leaked documents, the former small arms dealer is working as cyber arms dealer, supplying the government of Honduras with powerful surveillance tools used to spy on computers and cell phones.

The revelations are contained in the internal files and emails from Hacking Team, an Italian company that has sold spyware to repressive regimes and law enforcement agencies around the world, including Sudan and the United Arab Emirates. The Hacking Team files were dumped on the web by an anonymous source.

Zoller, a former member of the Israeli special forces, acted as the middleman for Hacking Team to sell its surveillance equipment to the Honduran government, a relationship that was formalized in July 2014, according to Hacking Team records. The records show the Hondurans paid at least $355,000 for the software, which is used to seize control of a target’s computer or cell phone, with the ability to track an individual’s movements, log their keystrokes and even activate their computer camera.

Talks between the parties took place throughout 2013, in the midst of a Honduran presidential election marred by violence. Working as a business partner to NICE Systems, an Israeli firm with a reseller agreement on behalf Hacking Team, Zoller arranged meetings with Honduran officials and members of Hacking Team. >>>

Cuba has been in the news constantly ever since December, when this Caribbean country and the United States formally restored full diplomatic relations for the first time since President John F. Kennedy imposed an economic embargo on Cuba in 1962.

Next week, Cuban dancers will take center stage at Jacob's Pillow Festival, which will host Malpaso with Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble.

But if you're expecting to see classic ballet or old-fashioned folk dancing, think again. Just because the two countries did not have economic ties for more than five decades does not mean that Cuban dance companies did not keep up with developments in the modern dance world.

Modern dance has flourished in Cuba in recent years. And one of the best, up-in-coming Cuban modern dance groups is Malpaso, according to Smith College assistant professor Lester Tomé, a native of Cuba who works in the college's Dance Department and who's writing a book about the history of ballet in Cuba.

A regular visitor to Cuba, Tomé saw Malpaso rehearse last year in the group's home studio in Havana. "I would describe Malpaso as typical of the world-class quality that distinguishes the island's professional dancers," Tomé said. "They're technically very good."

Tomé attributes Malpaso's high-level dancing to the top-notch training dancers receive in Cuba, not only in ballet but also in contemporary dance. The group's performers graduated from Cuba's top dance schools, including the National School of Ballet and National School of Dance. >>>

________________________________________Trailer: New Doc on Cuba as U.S. Begins Normalization with Island Neighbor After 54+ Years
Shadow and Act - Jul 30

By Tambay A. Obenson

As the United States and Cuba move toward normal relations for the first time in more than 54 years, after the latter was cut off from America by decades of hostility, living in conditions of scarcity and political restrictions, expect that unfolding new relationship to give birth to new collaborations in art - specifically film.

In this case, a documentary that profiles a unique collection of people who are pushing local boundaries and, as the title states, "Reinventing Cuba."

Per the press release, the one hour documentary goes beyond the stereotypes - beyond cigars and salsa, beyond mojitos and Malecón, beyond antique American cars and decaying architecture to reveal an extraordinary nation eager to embrace change.

Host Gerry Hadden takes viewers on a personal journey. He meets little league sluggers defying the odds and dreaming of the majors; doctors and medical researchers saving lives; hustlers finding ways around limited internet connections; artists and designers at the height of creativity; and black marketeers selling a vital entertainment and information device called "the package."

Hadden portrays vibrant, hopeful, and resourceful characters facing enormous challenges in today's Cuba. He reveals an often overlooked, burgeoning, middle class that is at the forefront of what will likely be Cuba's future as it moves into a new era. >>>

Sex trafficking: Lifelong struggle of exploited children
It is a world few Americans are aware of. But tens of thousands of American children are thought to be sexually exploited every year. It's believed that every night hundreds are sold for sex. The FBI says child sex abuse is almost at an epidemic level, despite the agency rescuing 600 children last year. "Trafficking" often conjures images of people from other countries being smuggled over land and across the sea and then forced to work against their will in foreign lands. People are trafficked into America from Mexico, Central and South America. But the vast majority of children bought and sold for sex every night in the United States are American kids. We have heard from a number of women from the East coast to the Mid-west who have frighteningly similar and horrific stories. Neglected, abused, exploited and often ignored starting from a young age - sometimes even prosecuted by the very people who should have protected them.